This invention relates to apparatus and method for extracting oil from hydrocarbon material bearing formations. The new hydrostatic separator may be disposed in a well casing that may be an existing well that may be marginally producing or not producing at all as well as new wells for the extraction of oil. The hydrostatic separator may serve to separate the oil into an upper portion of a well casing and to suppress any water below the location of the hydrostatic separator.
Many existing oil wells throughout the world have been exploited in what may be considered an initial or first stage of oil and gas extraction. Wells have been drilled into oil formations and oil and gas recovered using the well head or geophysical ground pressure conditions to extract the oil. Over time during such production the oil formation becomes disrupted from its natural condition as the gas is removed and oil and water tend to become mixed rather than separated.
As oil well production declines, second and third stage oil recover methods may be implemented. For example, water may be forced into the formation to attempt to recover more oil. Blocking of underground flow channels may be attempted to recover oil from less permeable flow channels. Other methods may also be used to attempt to recover oil from economically marginal or nonperforming wells. Such recovery methods may have an extraction ratio of 1 barrel of oil for every 10 barrels of water. This environmentally contaminated ground water must then be processed at a cost.
In one area of California where experiments have been conducted there may be as many as 146,000 oil wells of which a large proportion or nonproducing or marginally producing due to past extraction activities. If these wells can be returned to economically performing wells, there may be a large oil reserve that may be exploited. This may also be true throughout the United States as well as in many other parts of the world.